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Saturday, October 5, 2013

Israelis honeymooning in Georgia rescued from mountains

An Israeli couple that was honeymooning in the European
country of Georgia had a rocky start to their marriage. They went trekking, and
ended up stuck for almost two days. Aided by their families in Israel and a
local tour guide they were eventually rescued on Saturday.

Avia and David Shek married on September 17, and two weeks
later went on their honeymoon. Last Wednesday, they went on a trek in the
Mestia region in the Caucasus Mountains. "It turns out they shouldn't have
gone on that trek, because of the weather," said Iris, the mother of the
bride. "The first part went well. They slept in a cabin and two days later
were supposed to reach the Adishi village."

The mother says, "The signage was wrong, and the
amazing thing is that by one of the signs there was writing in stone, in
Hebrew, saying, 'Adishi not this way'. But they still kept on navigating
according to the signs." The two got lost on their way, entered deep
valleys, and eventually got stuck without the ability to move forward. Heavy
rain, and then snow, was pouring.

"They called my husband on Thursday afternoon and said
how they were," the mother said. "They gave us the phone number of a
local tour guide who speaks English, and he recruited locals to help look for
them. David kept giving details about their locations and my husband took out a
map and started looking for the location by the description, which he keeps
saying was like 'google from scratch'," Iris said.

She added, "They survived at nights in one sleeping
bag, in a temperature of minus seven degrees and snow. Here in Israel I
couldn't eat or sleep. I just thought about what else I could do to help
them."

She said, "We didn't hear from them too much until the
incident. There were mainly 'good morning' and 'good evening' texts. Luckily,
they didn't take a smart phone, but an older phone whose battery lasted close
to five days. You can say that's what saved their lives. On Saturday at noon,
the locals got to them and rescued them."

Ilan, the father of the bride, is on his way to Georgia to
meet his daughter and her husband. "I talked to them. They're okay, but
very exhausted. After the rescue they were interviewed by local
television."

Illana Ravid from the Foreign Ministry said, "It was
great cooperation with the Georgian people which led to the happy ending."